John Beavers—Vice President, International Alliances Program

Work

As the Director of the International Alliances Program for the National Audubon Society, John oversees our international conservation efforts. He is initially spending his time developing the international component of Audubon’s institutional strategy, strengthening the program and developing and strengthening partnerships in the Americas around achieving our conservation goals.

Background

Before joining Audubon, John lived in Guatemala for 16 years and initiated his work in the Maya Forest region of Guatemala, Southern Mexico and Belize with The Nature Conservancy as the Director of a $5 million USAID sponsored forest conservation project. During his time with the Conservancy he served as the Country Director for Guatemala, Director for Central America and the Associate Director of Conservation Programs for Latin America. Also, he was Chief-of-Party for a Central America wide $10 million USAID/Conservancy initiative focused on coastal-marine work.

Some of his accomplishments during this time included the negotiation of a $24.4 million debt-swap for conservation between Guatemala and the United States; development of the second largest park in Guatemala – Sierra del Lacandón - and purchase of 100,000 acres of inholdings within that park; launching of a $2 million climate change adaptation/mitigation project with American Electric and Power (AEP); and the establishment and strengthening of a private lands conservation strategy for Guatemala and Central America.

Previous to this work, John was the Economic Developer for a county in upstate New York and a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala.

Education

M.Sc. in Resource Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
B.A. in Political Science, Rutgers University